¹ And when a famine came in the land, after that barrenness which had happened in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Palestines to Gerara.

² And the Lord appeared to him and said: Go not down into Egypt, but stay in the land that I shall tell thee.

³ And sojourn in it, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for to thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries, to fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham thy father.

⁴ And I will multiply thy seed like the stars of heaven: and I will give to thy posterity all these countries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

⁵ Because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts and commandments, and observed my ceremonies and laws.

⁶ So Isaac abode in Gerara.

⁷ And when he was asked by the men of that place, concerning his wife, he answered: She is my sister; for he was afraid to confess that she was his wife, thinking lest perhaps they would like him because of her beauty.

⁸ And when very many days were passed, and he abode there, Abimelech king of the Palestines looking out through a window, saw him playing with Rebecca his wife.

⁹ And calling for him, he said: It is evident she is thy wife: why didst thou feign her to be thy sister? He answered: I feared lest I should die for her sake.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said: Why hadst thou deceived us? Some man of the people might have lain with thy wife, and thou hadst brought upon us a great sin. And he commanded all the people, saying:

¹¹ He that shall touch this man's wife, shall surely be put to death.

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found that same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

¹³ And the man was enriched, and he went on prospering and increasing, till he became exceeding great:

¹⁴ And he had possessions of sheep and of herds, and a very great family. Wherefore the Palestines envying him,

¹⁵ Stopped up at that time all the wells, that the servants of his father Abraham had digged, filling them up with earth:

¹⁶ Insomuch that Abimelech himself said to Isaac: Depart from us, for thou art become much mightier than we.

¹⁷ So he departed and came to the torrent of Gerara, to dwell there:

¹⁸ And he digged again other wells, which the servants of his father Abraham had digged, and which, after his death, the Palestines had of old stopped up: and he called them by the same names by which his father before had called them.

¹⁹ And they digged in the torrent, and found living water.

²⁰ But there also the herdsmen of Gerara strove against the herdsmen of Isaac, saying: It is our water. Wherefore he called the name of the well, on occasion of that which had happened, Calumny.

²¹ And they digged also another; and for that they quarreled likewise, and he called the name of it, Enmity.

²² Going forward from thence, he digged another well, for which they contended not: therefore he called the name thereof, Latitude, saying: Now hath the Lord given us room, and made us to increase upon the earth.

²³ And he went up from that place to Bersabee,

²⁴ Where the Lord appeared to him that same might, saying: I am the God of Abraham thy father; do not fear, for I am with thee: I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

²⁵ And he built there an altar: and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent: and commanded his servants to dig a well.

²⁶ To which place when Abimelech, and Ochozath his friend, and Phicol chief captain of his soldiers came from Gerara,

²⁷ Isaac said to them: Why are ye come to me, a man whom you hate, and have thrust out from you?

²⁸ And they answered: We saw that the Lord is with thee, and therefore we said: Let there be an oath between us, and let us make a covenant,

²⁹ That thou do us no harm, as we on our part have touched nothing of thine, nor have done any thing to hurt thee: but with peace have sent thee away increased with the blessing of the Lord.

³⁰ And he made them a feast, and after they had eaten and drunk:

³¹ Arising in the morning, they swore one to another: and Isaac sent them away peaceably to their own home.

³² And behold the same day the servants of Isaac came, telling him of a well which they had digged, and saying: We have found water.

³³ Whereupon he called it Abundance: and the name of the city was called Bersabee, even to this day.

³⁴ And Esau being forty years old, married wives, Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon of the same place.

³⁵ And they both offended the mind of Isaac and Rebecca.

¹ There was at that time Jephte the Galaadite, a most valiant man and a warrior, the son of a woman that was a harlot, and his father was Galaad.

² Now Galaad had a wife of whom he had sons: who after they were grown up, thrust out Jephte, saying: Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art born of another mother.

³ Then he fled and avoided them and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to him needy men, and robbers, and they followed him as their prince.

⁴ In those days the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵ And as they pressed hard upon them, the ancients of Galaad went to fetch Jephte out of the land of Tob to help them:

⁶ And they said to him: Come thou and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon.

⁷ And he answered them: Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father's house, and now you are come to me constrained by necessity?

⁸ And the princes of Galaad said to Jephte: For this cause we are now come to thee, that thou mayst go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be head over all the inhabitants of Galaad.

⁹ Jephte also said to them: If you be come to me sincerely, that I should fight for you against the children of Ammon, and the Lord shall deliver them into my band, shall I be your prince?

¹⁰ They answered him: The Lord who heareth these things, he himself is mediator and witness that we will do as we have promised.

¹¹ Jephte therefore went with the princes of Galaad, and all the people made him their prince. And Jephte spoke all his words before the Lord in Maspha.

¹² And he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, to say in his name, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me, to waste my land?

¹³ And he answered them: Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the confines of the Arnon unto the Jaboc and the Jordan: now therefore restore the same peaceably to me.

¹⁴ And Jephte again sent word by them, and commanded them to say to the king of Ammon:

¹⁵ Thus saith Jephte: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:

¹⁶ But when they came up out of Egypt, he walked through the desert to the Red Sea and came into Cades.

¹⁷ And he sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying: Suffer me to pass through thy land. But he would not condescend to his request. He sent also to the king of Moab, who likewise refused to give him passage. He abode therefore in Cades,

¹⁸ And went round the land of Edom at the side, and the land of Moab: and came over against the east coast of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon: and he would not enter the bounds of Moab.

¹⁹ So Israel sent messengers to Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon, and they said to him: Suffer me to pass through thy land to the river.

²⁰ But he also despising the words of Israel, suffered him not to pass through his borders: but gathering an infinite multitude, went out against him to Jasa, and made strong opposition.

²¹ And the Lord delivered him with all his army into the hands of Israel, and he slew him, and possessed all the land of the Amorrhite the inhabitant of that country,

²² And all the coasts thereof from the Arnon to the Jaboc, and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

²³ So the Lord the God of Israel destroyed the Amorrhite, his people of Israel fighting against him, and wilt thou now possess this land?

²⁴ Are not those things which thy god Chamos possesseth, due to thee by right? But what the Lord our god hath obtained by conquest, shall be our possession:

²⁵ Unless perhaps thou art better than Balac the son of Sephor king of Moab: or canst shew that he strove against Israel and fought against him,

²⁶ Whereas he hath dwelt in Hesebon, and the villages thereof, and in Aroer, and its villages, and in all the cities near the Jordan, for three hundred years. Why have you for so long a time attempted nothing about this claim?

²⁷ Therefore I do not trespass against thee, but thou wrongest me by declaring an unjust war against me. The Lord be judge and decide this day between Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸ And the king of the children of Ammon would not hearken to the words of Jephte, which he sent him by the messengers.

²⁹ Therefore the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and going round Galaad, and Manasses, and Maspha of Galaad, and passing over from thence to the children of Ammon,

³⁰ He made a vow to the Lord, saying: If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands,

³¹ Whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord.

³² And Jephte passed over to the children of Ammon, to fight against them: and the Lord delivered them into his hands.

³³ And he smote them from Aroer till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel, which is set with vineyards, with a very great slaughter: and the children of Ammon were humbled by the children of Israel.

³⁴ And when Jephte returned into Maspha to his house, his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children.

³⁵ And when he saw her, he rent his garments, and said: Alas! my daughter, thou hast deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing.

³⁶ And she answered him: My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the victory hath been granted to thee, and revenge of thy enemies.

³⁷ And she said to her father: Grant me only this which I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity with my companions.

³⁸ And he answered her: Go. And he sent her away for two months. And when she was gone with her comrades and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains.

³⁹ And the two months being expired, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she knew no man. From thence came a fashion in Israel, and a custom has been kept:

⁴⁰ That from year to year the daughters of Israel assemble together, and lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite for four days.